Thoughts on a Sunday morning - 11th October 2020

[Alastair]

Happy Thanksgiving . . . may your heart be filled with an awareness of all of God’s gifts to his people . . . and particularly the gift of family and friends. COVID may keep us at a distance but may the links of love ever remain strong and compelling.

And may your awareness of all you have to be thankful for incline you to share, whether in your bounty to those suffering deprivation or in a caring ZOOM to those who are missing you this holiday weekend. And a thank-you to each of you . . . your presence and notes are among the great blessings of this year.

Be safe, be well and be back next week . . . and in the meantime here are my thoughts for Thanksgiving.

Blessings and thanksgivings

Nola

It is the weekend for official Thanksgivings . . . have you toted up all you have to be thankful for? For one, I do not have to look forward to a week of cold turkey sandwiches, hot turkey sandwiches, turkey salad, turkey a la king, or anything else that leftovers can be turned into!

But beyond that, my THOUGHTS of this Sunday include my favourite thankfulness of this year.

God bless and may your thanksgivings be many this day and all your days.

[Alastair]

Re: Thoughts on a Sunday morning - 11th October 2020

In My Father's House Are Many Mansions


I always took this phrase as meaning there are many routes to God through the various Christian religions like Protestant, Catholic, Anglican, etc.

Like the Free Church in Scotland did not want organ music so when you sang a person would sing the first verse and then the congregation would then join in to sing the rest of the hymn.

So your idea of finding an appropriate church is valid as I remember my poor mother who always went to church, mostly the Church of Scotland, could only attend the Free Church of Scotland one Sunday in Golspie in Scotland and came out with a terrible headache. My father and I also attended and certainly the singing was not tuneful at all. I think that was the only and last time my mother visited a Free Church service.

But clearly many preferred that type of service so what works for you is what is important. Like I am not keen on the High Church services and do find many ministers very boring to listen to. It's as if they have forgotten what being a minister is all about which in my view is to keep the faith of their congregation and to convert more people to Christianity. So many people are now leaving the church and I put this down to very poor ministers that can't enthuse and encourage their congregation.

Like talking about the Knights Templars in Canada the Vicar General seemed to be totally uninterested in sharing God's word with the Templars. He always needed to be chased up to send in something for the Quarterly Newsletter. He could have used that medium to enthuse the membership but instead anything he said came up boring in the extreme. It's people like him that actually encourage people to leave the church.

Thankfully your talk actually encourages people to find a church that talks to them in the way that they would like to be talked to. So if the current church doesn't do it for you then seek out one that does.

Thanks Nola... great talk as always and hope things go well for the Templars in Edmonton. Great to see you've become the Grand Prior of Canada and not just the Grand Prior for Ontario!!! I also think your idea of a medal for visiting 10 Templar sites around the world is a great idea and hope it comes off.

Alastair